Hoover Dam Research Paper

According to the Cobuild Advanced Learning Dictionary, a dam is defined as, A wall that is built across a river in order to stop the water flowing and to make a lake.” The Hoover Dam is located in the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada. It was first called the Boulder Dam but was later named the Hoover Dam. It was named after President Herbert Hoover. Hoover was not only the president but also an engineer, and when he was Secretary of Commerce (before being President) he urged the construction of the dam. The dam is 726 feet tall and is about 1200 feet wide.

The Hoover Dam was startied to be built in March of 1931. According to the official Bureau of Reclamation for the Hoover Dam, the dam is, “A concrete arch-gravity type

in which the water load is carried by both gravity action and horizontal arch action.” The dam had a long process of construction and required a great deal of hard work. One construction company alone did not have the ability to build the dam alone. So six of the biggest construction companies in the United States combined together to do the work. Workers came from all over the United States. The workers, all 21,000 or so of them, worked hard and long hours towards the completion of the dam. The workers had to work in very harsh conditions. Some of them had to work in the tunnels. The tunnels were filled with carbon monoxide. On some days in the tunnels the temperature could reach a maximum of 140° F. Other workers had to work at heights up to 800 feet above the ground of the canyon. These workers had to carry 44 pound jack hammers to get rid of the unstable rock. It is reported that 112 people died as a result of the construction of the dam. Not included in this number is the deaths from pneumonia and carbon monoxide poisoning. The Hoover Dam opened in 1933 but was not finished until 1935.
At the time, the Hoover Dam cost about 49 million dollars.

This money was used for various parts of the construction. This included houses for the workers in Boulder City. These houses were 7.6 miles away from what was once the construction site of the dam. The money was also used for the materials used in the dam. These included 5 million barrels of cement, 45 million pounds of steel, 6.6 million tons of concrete, 5 20 ton cables (about 200,000 pounds), dynamite, and 600 miles of pipe. If the Hoover Dam were built today with all of these materials, it would cost about 860 million

dollars.
The Hoover Dam was built for many reasons. One of those reasons was hydroelectricity. The dam began its power plant service on September 12, 1936. To produce hydroelectricity the workers needed to build 17 turbines. These turbines now give electricity to about 1.3 million homes between Arizona, Nevada, and California. California receives 55.91 percent of the electricity produced. Nevada receives 25.14 percent of the electricity produced. Arizona receives 18.95 percent of the electricity produced. These turbines produce about four billion kilowatts of electricity every year. Another reason for building the dam is that it provides water for the surrounding areas. It provides ways to irrigate the low lying plains in one of the driest areas of the United States. A final reason the dam was built was to stop the flooding of the Colorado River. This protected the houses and the surrounding farmland from getting flooded and destroyed.
When the Hoover Dam was built, it created Lake Mead. Lake Mead is the largest man-made reservoir in the United States. It as named after Dr. Elwood Mead, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. It covers over 550 miles of coastline and covers 247 square miles of area. It is 590 feet deep in parts. It took 6.5 years to fill Lake Mead. This has created tourism in the area because visitors come to Lake Mead for swimming, boating, and fishing.
The amount of electricity produced by the Hoover Dam has been decreasing over time. This is because of a drought in Lake Mead and a high demand for the water in the Colorado River. If the water level falls too low, the dam will no longer be able to generate power. This is causing new workers to make five new wide-head turbines that are being designed to be used by 2017. These turbines are made to work with less flow of water.

II.

How It Was Built

There were many steps to building the Hoover Dam. The first step was to blast the canyon walls of the Black Canyon. The blasting of the canyon walls helped make four diversion tunnels to move the constant flow of the Colorado’s River water around where the workers were constructing the dam. There were two tunnels made on each side of the canyon. When it was summer the tunnels would be very, very hot (about 140, but in the winter the tunnels would be the exact opposite. When the canyon walls were blasted, the extra rock was then used to make a different route for the Colorado River.

After blasting the walls and clearing the rock, workers would then clear the walls of the Black Canyon. During the clearing of the walls, the workers carried 44 pound jackhammers to get rid of the unstable rock. Workers hung to heights of 800 feet to do this treacherous task.

The dam base also had to be built. The men had to dig half a million cubic yards to reach the bedrock which was 40 feet below. Concrete was poured into the base. It took 2 years of pouring concrete to

build.
The final step in this long process was building a power plant. For the power plant, four intake towers needed to be built. In these intake towers, the workers used about 600 miles of pipe loop. That is the distance from Philadelphia to Winnipeg, Canada (598 miles).
How the dam works is a process with many steps. Step one is the intake gates pull in the water. Second the penstock pipeline leads to the turbine. This water built up pressure. Third the water in the turbine turns the blades that are attached to the generator. Magnets inside the generator rotate past copper coils that produce alternating current. Fourth the transformer takes in the alternating current and converts it to voltage. That is moved to the power lines. Fifth, the excess water is moved through the pipelines called tailraces and then reenters the Colorado River.

III. Environmental Impacts
The Hoover Dam has a great impact on the environment. If the Hoover Dam had not been built, there would still be flooding to the native farmland and houses causing people to flee from the area. The Hoover Dam also gives over a million homes electricity and without that they would have to rethink their way of life. The Hoover Dam also allows travel from Nevada to Arizona and back again.
The making of the Hoover Dam also impacted Lake Mead and the natural flooding of the area. After the Hoover Dam was built, it took the water away from Lake Mead and wiped out some of the native plants and animals. Also the natural flooding every year drew many plants and animals into the area. Once the flooding stopped, these plants and animals had no place to live. Four fish species are now on the endangered list because of this. Examples are the Bonytail chub, the Colorado pike minnow, the Humpback chub, and the Razorback sucker. These are just some of the negative effects the Hoover Dam has had on the environment.
As you can see the Hoover Dam construction was a very long process. There are many good and bad environmental effects and a very long process of how the hydroelectricity and the dam works